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Querying JSON with LINQ
4 minutes
Getting values by Property Name or Collection Index
The simplest way to get a value from LINQ to JSON is to use the Item[Object] index on
JObject/JArray and then cast the returned JValue to the type you want.
string json = @"{
'channel': {
'title': 'James Newton-King',
'link': 'http://james.newtonking.com',
'description': 'James Newton-King\'s blog.',
'item': [
{
'title': 'Json.NET 1.3 + New license + Now on CodePlex',
'description': 'Announcing the release of Json.NET 1.3, the MIT
license and the source on CodePlex',
'link': 'http://james.newtonking.com/projects/json-net.aspx',
'categories': [
'Json.NET',
'CodePlex'
]
},
{
'title': 'LINQ to JSON beta',
'description': 'Announcing LINQ to JSON',
'link': 'http://james.newtonking.com/projects/json-net.aspx',
'categories': [
'Json.NET',
'LINQ'
]
}
]
}
}";
JObject rss = JObject.Parse(json);
string rssTitle = (string)rss["channel"]["title"];
string itemTitle = (string)rss["channel"]["item"][0]["title"];
JArray categories = (JArray)rss["channel"]["item"][0]["categories"];
IList<string> categoriesText = categories.Select(c => (string)c).ToList();
Querying with LINQ
JObject/JArray can also be queried using LINQ. Children() returns the children values of a
JObject/JArray as an IEnumerable<JToken> that can then be queried with the standard
Where/OrderBy/Select LINQ operators.
Note
Children() returns all the children of a token. If it is a JObject it will return a collection of
properties to work with, and if it is a JArray you will get a collection of the array's values.
var postTitles =
from p in rss["channel"]["item"]
select (string)p["title"];
foreach (var item in postTitles)
{
Console.WriteLine(item);
}
var categories =
from c in rss["channel"]["item"].SelectMany(i =>
i["categories"]).Values<string>()
group c by c
into g
orderby g.Count() descending
select new { Category = g.Key, Count = g.Count() };
foreach (var c in categories)
{
Console.WriteLine(c.Category + " - Count: " + c.Count);
}
LINQ to JSON can also be used to manually convert JSON to a .NET object.
Deserializing Using LINQ Objects
public class Shortie
{
public string Original { get; set; }
public string Shortened { get; set; }
public string Short { get; set; }
public ShortieException Error { get; set; }
}
public class ShortieException
{
public int Code { get; set; }
public string ErrorMessage { get; set; }
}
Manually serializing and deserializing between .NET objects is useful when you are working
with JSON that doesn't closely match your .NET objects.
Deserializing Using LINQ Example
string jsonText = @"{
'short': {
'original': 'http://www.foo.com/',
'short': 'krehqk',
'error': {
'code': 0,
'msg': 'No action taken'
}
}
}";
JObject json = JObject.Parse(jsonText);
Shortie shortie = new Shortie
{
Original = (string)json["short"]["original"],
Short = (string)json["short"]["short"],
Error = new ShortieException
{
Code = (int)json["short"]["error"]["code"],
ErrorMessage = (string)json["short"]["error"]["msg"]
}
};
Console.WriteLine(shortie.Original);
Console.WriteLine(shortie.Error.ErrorMessage);
See Also
